Alireza Tangsiri oversaw technology now used to threaten strategic waterway and goaded Trump to attack oil-export hub Kharg Island
Middle East crisis – live updates
Alireza Tangsiri, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, was a veteran hardliner with a taste for fiery rhetoric who grasped better than many the strategic importance of the strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil and gas.
During naval exercises in the Gulf in January, Tangsiri said the Iranian Revolution of 1979 represented “a turning point in the history of the Iranian nation and a new dawn for the awakening of the oppressed nations of the world”.
Like many senior officials of the IRGC, Tangsiri won his regime credentials as a young man during the bloody 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. He then received a series of promotions, eventually becoming the commander of the IRGC’s maritime force in 2018, where he pioneered the unconventional weapons that would allow Iran to project power and influence in the Persian Gulf and beyond.
